Ella’s Journey: The perfect wartime romance to fall in love with this summer
A family in need. A country on the brink of war.Ella is trying to put the past behind her… but the past won’t always stay hidden.The truth is, Ella is hiding from a scandal. A scandal that drove her family out of their beloved Lane End Cottage in the tiny Yorkshire village they had lived in all their lives. A scandal that her sister Alice was blamed for.But Alice is no longer here. So it’s up to Ella to pick up the pieces and do the best she can for the family she loves so dearly.Ella’s luck finally changes when she gains work at Grange House, a gentleman’s residence on the outskirts of York. But can she keep her position there? Or will she follow in her elder sister’s footsteps?A gripping new saga series that fans of Dilly Court and Valerie Wood will adore.
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ELLAâS JOURNEY
LYNNE FRANCIS
Avon an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers
The News Building
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain in ebook format by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Copyright © Lynne Francis 2017
Cover design © Alison Groom 2017
Cover image © Shutterstock
Lynne Francis asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © October 2017 ISBN: 9780008244279
Version: 2018-05-10
Dedicated to the memory of Freda Pegden 1924â2017 and Lucy Westmore 1958â2017
Table of Contents
âElla?â
She thought she heard someone calling her name, but it was hesitant, and the bustle and hubbub of the crowd whipped the words away. She paused and turned but, unable to spot anyone she knew, she continued on her way, shopping list in hand. Parliament Street market was busy so close to Christmas, although at least the crush provided a bit of warmth on such a raw, bitter day. Ellaâs brown wool coat, on permanent loan from Mrs Sugden, the housekeeper, fitted well enough but it was thin and barely held the cold at bay. She was glad of her red knitted scarf â a bright flash of colour â and another loan, this time from Doris, from one of the maids. When Ella Bancroft had first arrived at Grange House, the two women had been puzzled by what they perceived as her lack of appropriate clothing.
âA shawl will never do!â Mrs Sugden had exclaimed the previous November when Ella, wrapped in the shawls that had seen her through the Yorkshire winters back in Northwaite, was set to leave the house with her shopping list and basket. âYouâll be nithered. And youâre in the town now. You need to wear something thatâs a credit to the household. Youâd best borrow this.â
Sheâd pulled the brown coat from the cupboard in the passageway. âI wonât miss it. Iâve another I prefer.â
Ella had slipped it on: it fitted her quite well. She thought it was probably some time since Mrs Sugden had worn it as it was putting it kindly to say that the housekeeper was a good deal broader than Ella, who was slender and taller than average. Sheâd judged it best not to comment, however, and instead expressed her gratitude, although privately she felt that the thin wool wouldnât do the same job of keeping out the cold as her thick woollen shawls. And so it proved but, nevertheless, she felt almost elegant when she ventured out in the coat, which was a feeling quite new to her. Stevens, the butler, had said admiringly, âThat red scarf of Dorisâs puts the roses in your cheeks,â making Ella blush and thus further increasing her rosiness.
She wished she had a pair of gloves. The wind was biting and her numb fingers struggled to grasp the coins as she made her purchases. Tucking the last paper bag into her basket, she smiled at the stallholder who was stamping his feet and blowing on his fingers in an effort to keep the chill at bay. With her errands completed, it wouldnât be long until she was out of the cold and back in the kitchen at Grange House. Groceries arrived there in a regular weekly delivery, one of the many things that Ella had marvelled at in the York household. The grocery boys carried great boxes of meat and vegetables into the scullery and, if more supplies were needed during the week, one of the delivery boys would be sent round on a bicycle, with his front basket loaded up and his apron flapping as he pedalled. But sometimes Mrs Sugden took it into her head that they needed a nice bit of samphire to go with the fish for that nightâs dinner, and old Mr Grimshawâs stall in the market was bound to have some, or sheâd heard that there were some particularly fine quailâs eggs to be had that day. Ella was both entranced and unnerved by her errands, puzzled that a bright-green weed would be deemed suitable to serve at the table, or that such a creature as a quail existed.
